Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Nold.
Hi Anthony, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
From a young age I was interested in art. I remember in about 2nd grade I wanted to “be good at drawing” and because a friend of mine at the time was a good artist. This became a lifelong goal and journey as I spent a lot of my free time and a lot of my in school time trying to get better. I would get interested in a cartoon or anime and then spend my time trying to draw the characters from that show, or create my own in the style if the show. I remember being frustrated at not being able to draw at the level I wanted, and I then would spend more of my time in school on art rather than other classes. My notebook were always filled with drawings rather than the notes for the class. Over time I would eventually start to be able to create works I was “proud of”. I would say I really hit a stride in my senior year of high school and then continued to practice in a more mindful way through college and beyond. It was in college I started getting into film and making youtube videos. I would make comedy sketches and practice video editing techniques and video effects. I would still do my art on the side but it was when I decided to fuse the two is when I really found my passion. I made a “blues clues” parody video which required me to draw a lot of the backgrounds and had some moving characters with myself on a green screen. This was my first video that got more than a couple hundred views and I think it currently sits at about 80,000. After this I started to try more videos mixing art and comedy or action. This eventually led to me just trying to do full on animation. I have been animating now for 12 years, and teaching animation for 10. Animation is what brings me the most fulfillment in creating, because its bringing something completely to life from 0. It is the most challenging form of creating but nothing feels as good as when you hit the play button and are able to watch what you’ve created.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not too many struggles, but I found it hard to focus in school and art was a good outlet for me, although it also created a cycle where I did worse in school because I was focusing on trying to get better. My main struggle would have to be the struggle with my own abilities vs where I want to be. I feel comfortable in my abilities now but honestly it was a hard fought road. I think if I wasn’t so stubborn I would have accepted that I just “was’t good enough” and given up. I think people view artists as people who were gifted in some way and while that may be the case for a select few. I think more people have a similar journey to mine and just slowly, over a long period of time got a little better and better through practice.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My main focus is Animation with a specialization in 2d digital hand drawn character animation. I especially like animating action sequences.
I also like drawing physically and painting using watercolors.
What I am most known for would be as follows:
With animation:
– I have done some comedic animation videos that received a decent amount of views on instagram, one receiving 2 million views.
– I have been for a few years now animating the original 151 pokemon as one continuous camera clip.
– I have an award winning animation “Human Day” that was in some film festivals. 11 festivals with 3 wins
With physical art
I am. would say im most known for my bird watercolor paintings and my pet portraits.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my high school art teacher who saw that I was creating youtube content and recommended me for a video production teaching position. That led me to eventually create a 3 year animation program at that same school St. John Bosco high school in bellflower, CA.
I was also lucky when I moved here to Duluth with my partner, her aunt put me in contact with the Duluth art institute and I was able to continue teaching various classes through there including a digital animation class.
I have also just networked a lo through various social media platforms like reddit and instagram. Youtube has also been an amazing place to learn and share knowledge and techniques with other creatives.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/art_by_ant
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/AnthNoldImaginations
